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Jewish Black Dancer Transcends Racial, Ethnic, Social Lines, and Excels

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Kind of like this…only Jewish….and Black. The New York Times shared this week the story of Drew Lovejoy, a 17-year-old African-American Jew from Greenville Ohio, who has made a splash in the world of Irish dance.

An interesting story was published in the New York Times this week about Drew Lovejoy, a seventeen-year-old Jewish black from Greenville, Ohio.
Yes, you read that correctly. A Black, Jewish, Irish dancer…from Ohio.

Drew’s biological father is a Baptist from Georgia, and his mother is a Jew from Iowa. And as if his background weren’t eclectic enough, Lovejoy is also a precocious Irish dancer. He attended a dance competition with his mother at an early age and was immediately intrigued by the art. His mother, who has, along with her son, seemingly encountered resistance as a result of her family’s peculiar profile, was skeptical young Drew would excel at such an esoteric activity.

“I was like, ‘Yeah, right,’ ” his mother reminisced to the Times, as she recounted the event that propelled Drew to take on Irish dancing. “You’re biracial and you’re a Jew. We thought you had to be Irish and Catholic.”

Her son, however, had already made up his mind. “I was like, ‘I want a medal,’ ” he said.

Entitled “An Irish Tradition With an Only-in-America Star,” the New York Times article aimed to illuminate a highly resonating instance of a teen able to transcend racial and ethnic lines and skyrocket to international fame in an arena where few had dared to enter. The victor of the all-Ireland dancing competition for his age group in the last three years, Lovejoy has been heralded as an example of the continuity and lasting relevance of the American dream. Still, the road to success has had a few bumps, according to the account of Lovejoy’s current situation.

While admired for his race in the dancing realm (in 2008, his peers likened him to Barack Obama), at home in Greenville, Lovejoy has experienced difficulties adjusting to local political and social norms. Most people in the area vote Republican, and when Drew went around soliciting support for President Obama during his bid for the presidency in ’08, the communal response was not very positive. According to the Times report, Andee Goldberg discontinued her son’s civic engagements when negative comments regarding Drew’s race were made in phone calls from disgruntled locals.
Because of his race and his unorthodox sport selection, Lovejoy struggled to fit in socially at his school. His mother removed him and he is currently taking online educational courses.

“It’s that black kid from America in the pink shirt,” Drew said about the way he is viewed by people in Greenville. He attends a dance school in Cincinnati, a two hour drive from his hometown, and spends one hour training and a few hours dancing daily. His hard work has earned him a bevy of ribbons, trophies, and prizes, and in 2010, he became the first person of color to win the Irish dancing competition. Following the victory, Lovejoy was greeted by elderly Irish men.

“They said, ‘We never thought it would happen, but we’re thrilled that it did,’ ” Andee Goldberg said. For Drew’s sake, however, they decided to keep his religious identity private. “They don’t even know he’s Jewish. That hasn’t been broached. I think it would be too overwhelming,” Lovejoy’s mom explained.

While experiencing trouble at home while acclaim abroad, Lovejoy has been forcibly taught that his background will mean different things to different people. “You have two lives — the Irish dance world and the real world where you live every day,” his mother said. “[Drew] found a place [in the dancing crowd] where [he is] comfortable and people don’t look at [him] in a certain way.”

For readers of the Times article, the story of Drew Lovejoy signified the boons of American liberty, the seeming hostility towards different people in predominantly white, culturally rooted towns, and how the Irish tradition has, in a funny way, found itself in the American heartland. For others, however, the article presented an opportunity to encourage a fellow Jews to be open about his identity.

“I hope the kid (I guess he’s barely a kid, at 17, although the story reads as though he’s younger) doesn’t keep hiding his Jewishness,” wrote a blogger self-identified as “Kol Ra’ash Gadol” on the weblog Jewschool. “Go, young, Jewish, black, Irish-dancer, use the force! Or whatever.”

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